Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

Wintersemester 2007/2008

Professur für Amerikanistik

Hauptseminar: American Historiographic Metafiction

Kurt Vonnegut′s Slaughterhouse-Five as Historiographic

Metafiction

Fertiggestellt: August 2008

Table of Contents

I. Introduction 01

II. Kurt Vonnegut′s

Slaughterhouse-Five

as Historiographic Metafiction 01

1. Historiographic Metafiction 01

2. Historiographic Metafictional Elements in

Slaughterhouse-Five

03

2.1 Time 03

2.2 History 07

2.3 Intertextuality 09

III. Conclusion 11

IV. Bibliography 12

I. Introduction

The representation of history depends mainly on the perspective, attitude and

cultural background of the beholder; which at the same time marks the major flaw of

historiography. One topic or event will never be identically described by two historians,

even if they are given the very same materials and sources to work with. As a consequence,

historiography can only try to create an image, as true and original as possible, but is never

able to depict everything that happened as it actually was in its full scope. So there were

and always will be fictional elements and interpretations in the reports and writings about

past events.

This assumption leads us to historiographic metafiction, a style of writing that

emerged during the postmodern era. If there is fiction in scholarly historiography, where is

the difference between that and a novel that deals with history? This term paper will try to

give an answer to that question and examine features and characteristics of historiographic

metafiction, which eventually will be applied to Kurt Vonnegut′s

Slaughterhouse-Five

. In

postmodern literature and, of course, especially in historiographic metafiction, authors

tried to find new ways of telling stories and particularly representing history. I will take a

closer look at the narrative frame and especially the concept of time Vonnegut used in the

novel. But how is history represented in

Slaughterhouse-Five

? This will be the second part

of the analysis that will attempt to find answers why Vonnegut wrote the novel the way he

did. The third part will deal with intertextual elements in the novel. All citations from the

novel and the pages indicated in brackets are taken from the edition cited below.1

II. Kurt Vonnegut′s Slaughterhouse-Five as Historiographic Metafiction

1. Historiographic Metafiction

The term

postmodernism

, when used in fiction, should, by analogy, best be reserved

to describe fiction that is at once metafictional and historical in its echoes of the

texts and contexts of the past. In order to distinguish this paradoxical beast from

traditional historical fiction, I would like to label it "historiographic metafiction."

[...] In the postmodern novel the conventions of both fiction and historiography are

simultaneously used and abused, installed and subverted, asserted and denied.2

1 Kurt Vonnegut,

Slaughterhouse-Five: The Children′s Crusade A Duty-Dance With Death

(1969; repr.

London: Vintage, 1991).

2 Linda Hutcheon, "Historiographic Metafiction: Parody and the Intertexts of History",

Intertextuality and
Contemporary American Fiction,

eds. P. O′Donnell and Robert Con Davis. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1989), 3-5.

1

This definition given by Linda Hutcheon describes probably best what is meant by

historiographic metafiction, a term coined by herself. Historiographic metafiction tries to

combine the best of two worlds that means it combines fictional elements, which it

generously uses, and blends it with historical events, which may provide a framework that

is filled with fictitious actions and protagonists; thus it unites the `world′ and literature.3

In order to understand historiographic metafiction, it is necessary to know about the

developments that changed the view on representation in the past decades. A sceptical

relativism has challenged the authenticity of historiography and its claim for truth. So the

denial of ultimate truth in representation led to the so-called postmodern crisis of

representation. If the image of the past is influenced by culture, which means that different

cultural circles put emphasis on different aspects of historical events, there will always be

more than truth. But since art is not obliged and willing to provide a perfect copy of reality,

it possesses the freedom to deliver its message in a concealed way.4 According to Engler

the `reality′ that is presented to the reader, "is the product of a complex process by which

traditionally encoded images and texts structure our perceptions and determine the models

by which we construct our notions of self and external reality."5 Although historiography is

liable to interpretation, the history of a culture is important for the individual, because

history is intelligible and comprehensive; and man is a sense making being. The common

history of a culture is of vital importance, because it is one of the main aspects ­ apart from

religion, language, etc. ­ that distinguishes cultures.6

Just like historians are trying to give sense to history, authors of fiction intend to

make sense of things that seem to be chaotic or unintelligible and by that create something

new in which factual truth and the necessity of reality become unimportant. In comparison

the writer controls only his own fictional reality, whereas the historian′s realm is reality.7

So the freedom of the writer enables him to write literature that combines both historical

facts and fictional elements and by that creates different views on historical events.

Because if historiography depends on interpretation and constructs reality, then why should

historiographic metafiction not provide a `true′ image of the past, just like historiography

does?

3 "Parody and the Intertexts of History", 4.

4 Bernd Engler. "The Dismemberment of Clio: Fictionality, Narrartivity, and the Construction of Historical

Reality in Historiographic Metafiction."

Historiographic Metafiction in Modern American and Canadian
Literature,

eds. Bernd Engler and Kurt Müller. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1994, 14-15.

5 "The Dismemberment of Clio", 15.

6 "The Dismemberment of Clio", 26.

7 "The Dismemberment of Clio", 26-27.

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